TMBA 287: Ask Us Anything: Relationships, Business, Living Abroad, and More

This episode is a pretty unique one. In this week’s newsletter we reached out to our listeners and encouraged them to ask us just about anything that was on their minds. It turns out an overwhelming number of people wanted to know more about our lifestyles and what goes into the creation of the show. Ian and I are going to take you Behind the Scenes on this week’s episode. We’ll talk about the difficulties of having relationships on the road, what it’s like to live as an expatriate, a little about our hobbies, and how we spend our time.

Listen to this week’s show and learn:

What kind of goals we have running a lifestyle business.

The biggest financial benefits and drawbacks of living abroad.

How much money it costs to move to Thailand and get an apartment.

Tips for people who are not technically savvy but want to become location independent.

Listening options:

Or click here to get sent to the top of the page where the on-site player is.

Thanks for listening to our show! We’ll be back next Thursday morning 8AM EST.

Cheers,

Dan & Ian

Published on03.27.15

Cody

Hey Dan & Ian,

Loved this podcast. Really helped me solidify a decision I made within the last week to start going out on my own. Next month will complete my first year as an SEO at an agency, and although I’ve been building niche affiliate sites in my free time, the profit just isn’t there to build myself a lifestyle within a reasonable amount of time (sure, the more “passive” aspect is kind of cool, but it would take years).

So I said screw it. I’ll create SEO bundles and sell them myself, which ironically will put more money in my pocket than an employer could, equaling more time to invest in affiliating.

It’ll take time and a lot of hustle, but it’ll be worth it.

Brent

I’m not a DC member (yet) but there’s a good chance I’ll be in Barcelona while your event is going on purely by coincidence. Whats the best way for me to find some DCers and meet some rad people, learn about the hotspots in town and most importantly marvel at Dan’s impressive squat physique?

Great episode by the way- many of those questions never occurred to me but I enjoyed hearing them nonetheless.

Thanks for the mention boys, great episode as usual. We’ve seen some Lifestyle Larrys (as we like to call them) really kick off their digital nomad experience by buying a site, so it definitely a possible way to get started making money online.

This was one of my favorites. Nice to hear about some of the non-business stuff which is as important as anything.

martyn

Great show this week, and its good to hear the day to day side of Dan & Ian. It sounds like the original dreamline has just grown and grown into creating an amazing lifestyle for you both.

I’m in the midst of ramping up my productised business (data analytics for small business), listening to your story is massively encouraging in the lonely world of the solopreneur. Probably time I joined the DC….

Jeff Doehler

Awesome episode guys! I’ve heard Ian mention his girlfriend in passing on the show before, but it was great to hear about how he actually made his relationship work while incorporating travel.

It’s also interesting that you mentioned the topic of balancing relationships and travel is common in the DC, but it hasn’t been touched on yet in the show. I can definitely see it being a concern for a lot of people interested in being digital nomads. Keep up the good work!

hey Martyn thanks, ya know it is sorta crazy how that stuff seemed to work out… at least in our case writing down what we thought we wanted ended up being correlated with us managing most of those goals. I was listened to another show this evening and the speaker was saying he couldn’t succeed because he sucked at long term thinking, and i guess for us the dreamlines were an tangible exercise in long term thinking.

Hey Cody, I can’t argue with that plan. You’re right to say if you go the bundles route you can be earning more than at an employer within just a few months. It isn’t easy but it’s more than doable.

martyn

Absolutely – I’ve been saying for years ‘wouldn’t it be nice to be location independent…’ but it wasn’t until recently that I sat down and actually worked out what that looked like in terms of recurring revenue and logistics. That long term plan will be vastly different for everyone even if we all ended up washed up on the same beach in Thailand.

My biggest problem has always been creating quality marketing and content. I’ve had a habit of designing products that serve me well but not the customer… and it’s only now it’s kinda clicked and I’m understanding how B2B marketing can actually work in practice (still a heck of a lot to learn though!

I screwed that up and ended up posting as a
guest, opps. Thanks for looking into it though! After posting, I managed to get to it by following the ” Right-click and “save file as” for direct download.” link. That seems to be the only way to access it as of now, but it works and I got to listen to it! The dreamline template you guys made is awesome too, thanks.

Many Toll Free Service now offer what is stand-alone services which mean your 800, 888, 866, or 877 number forwards directly to your current phone number making it easier and even less complicated to purchase.

Hi Guys, this is the first time I am on this. And I need your advice. I am working as Regional Sales Manager for one of the world’s best diecut tooling supplier which based in Thailand. I speak very fluently in English, Mandarin, Vietnamese and can speak some Taiwanese and Thai. I take care of more than 1 million usd of sales for the company and they don’t want me to leave. But I had an fair at work (I know that is stupid) and it wouldn’t be an issue if the reason we broke up is not about another girl who works under him and they are now so happily dating in front of me. He is technical and I am sale so I have no way to get rid of them. I have a plan to go to the US to study business. But it’s crazy expensive there. And I have a 10 year old son to take care of too. My dead line is end of September when the company finished with its fiscal year. I am looking for another right now but haven’t gotten any good one yet. When you are in a bad situation, your brain stuck and you couldn’t have any good idea. So I very appreciate for your all advice. Thanks.

Gwen

I posted something on this today (as guest though) and I can’t see it anymore :-(